


I'll Never Know Your Name

by tuesdaysinoctober



Series: ZK Feb. Flash Fics [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adulthood, Adults, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Past Lives, fuck im so bad at tags, katara works at a pottery studio, uhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29191329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesdaysinoctober/pseuds/tuesdaysinoctober
Summary: They meet twice, then four times, and they never see each other again.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: ZK Feb. Flash Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143167
Kudos: 24
Collections: Zutara February Flash Fics





	I'll Never Know Your Name

**Author's Note:**

> I should really start writing ZK where they, like, actually get together? But this is the inspiration that struck me, so. Also modern aus are superior. I'm so bad at summaries oml. For ZK February Flash Fics prompt day 4, In My Dreams. This is a couple hours early. Oh well.

They say that if you see someone’s face in your dream and you don’t know them, you passed them on the street and your brain seared their face into your memory. 

Katara doesn’t often remember strangers or her dreams. Zuko doesn’t either. But when they run into each other at a sporting boutique, there’s something inexplicable, something familiar about each other’s presence. 

They murmur sorry, Zuko trying to get to the door, Katara trying to get to the yoga pants but they bump into each other again. Katara chuckles. Zuko frowns. 

“I’ll let you go,” she says, stepping to the side. 

“Yeah. . . thanks.” 

He appears in her dreams that night, shouting something at her. The air smells like smoke, the clouds are dark, and there is a girl up on some stairs, facing him. That’s all Katara remembers the next morning. 

*** 

Zuko sees her again, tucking her hair behind her ear as she smiles at a mother and daughter. He can’t believe that she works at the place Kiyi chose for her birthday, a ceramics studio, and he can’t believe that barely two days ago, he had a dream about this woman. 

He barely remembers it, just flashes of light and a high pitched cackle but she was there. 

The mother and daughter move out of the way and Zuko is startled out of his stare by Kiyi tugging on his hand. 

She looks up from counting money and smiles at the two of them. 

“Hi there!” she says, her voice sounding different from when he ran into her. Customer service voice. Her eyebrows raise slightly as she takes in Zuko but the smile stays firmly on her face. 

“We’re here for Kiyi’s birthday party,” he says. 

“Of course!” she says. “You can pick out any ceramics you like. Colors are over there and then come get me or Suki and we’ll help you get set up.” 

“Thanks,” Zuko says, and she nods. 

Kiyi picks out a kitten and the colors pink and green. She sits down at the table and Zuko half flags down Katara, who had been moving between the tables with the rest of the kids attending Kiyi’s birthday party. 

Katara pours out the paint for Kiyi, who giggles and begins to smear pink all over the cat. 

Zuko stands awkwardly around after Katara leaves until she comes back, a faint smile on her face. 

“You can paint one too,” she says. 

“Oh! Uh, okay.” 

He chooses a dragon, painting it red and gold. 

*** 

He’s in her dreams again. 

Why the _hell_ is he in her dreams again? 

It seemed like there was a fight, with her hanging back, watching. Then a taunt, a laugh, something that looked like. . . it was hard for Katara to tell, but lightning maybe? And then this man was jumping in front of her, catching the lightning in his chest. 

She wakes up immediately after. 

It bothers her for the rest of the day at work, so much so that she goes to form for the birthday party last week, the one for his daughter (or sister? It was hard to tell) and looks up the emails of the people that registered. 

_Zuko Sozin_. There’s the name. There’s the email address. 

She writes to him, explaining everything, explaining that she knows how odd it is, but the circumstances are just so _weird_. She pours it all out. And then she stares at what she wrote and stares some more and then Katara deletes it all. 

*** 

Zuko dreams of her one last time before the dreams stop completely. 

He is laying on a hard floor, his voice raspily thanking her, as she kneels over him, with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. 

She helps him stand and they lean on each other until words are shouted and they both turn, but he wakes up before he can hear what was being told to them. 

Still half-asleep, he grabs the pen and pile of post-it notes always on his desk and scribbles, “You’re always in my dreams and I never know your name.” 

Two weeks later, he doesn’t remember writing it.

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry for using the often reverted to Zuko Sozin


End file.
